Glendronach is a consistent winner for me and is certainly in contention for my favorite of the sherry cask-heavy distilleries. Unfortunately, the price spikes significantly once you exceed the 15 year, so it’s taken me quite a while to get around to this. Let’s see if it was worth the pinch. Nose: Dried apricot. Fruit cake. A pine note. Hazelnut. Plum, date, fig, and raisin. Cranberry and raspberry. Some orange citrus and plenty almond and walnut. Butterscotch and vanilla. Caramel. Like sherbert. Palate: Plum, grape, date, and fig. Raisin and raspberry as well. A little bit of fizzy cola. Plenty of orange/tangerine citrus. Milk chocolate and vanilla, reminiscent of ice cream. Chewy caramel. Lime or maybe raspberry sherbert. Finish: Almond and walnut. Plum, date, fig, grape. Blackberry jam. Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, white pepper, and oak. Red hot tamale heat on the way out, producing a moderate-long finish, bearing credence to the 46% ABV. This is a superb whisky. There’s a ton of complexity here, with the rich, dark fruit notes taking center stage throughout. The dessert sweet notes are also prominent, and the profile is rounded by some nice citrus notes. This has all the hallmarks of a stalwart sherried scotch. The only issue here is the price. At $280, this is a heavy, heavy price tag for an 18-year old, which I consider to be the bridge year between premium and ultra premium. This bears a decidedly ultra premium price tag, and generally, it delivers. I’m going to say that this falls a tad short of hitting its mark for VFM, so I’m taking my raw score of 4.5 and knocking it down a quarter star with consideration to value. It’s difficult to suggest a purchase of this at its current, bloated market price, but from a pure enjoyment perspective, this is absolutely excellent. Also, just to throw in one more note, it did not enjoy my first couple pours of this. It developed tremendously through oxidation and time—this is why I’ll never review a bottle until I’ve had at least two pours out of it. It really made a difference here, because, for as complex and rich as it is now, it just felt flat and devoid of the layers I’m finding at this point. 4.25/5.